Obama’s Circle of Friends - Curiouser and Curiouser

In May 2005, neighborly Tony Rezko handed his wife the tidy sum of $625,000 to buy a corner lot connected to Barack Obama’s Chicago Kenwood area mansion, handing over the asking price to the seller on the same day the Obamas bought the house itself for $300,000 less than asking price. Newly elected to the US Senate and unable to come up with the required sum to buy the Georgian-style house, Obama approached Rezko, a Muslim of Syrian birth, for “advice“.

According to an Obama spokesman, sometime between January and May, Obama and Mr. Rezko walked around the property together for about 15 to 30 minutes. Obama spokesman Bill Burton “said Obama wanted Rezko’s opinion of the property, because Rezko was a real-estate developer in the area.” Really? Rezko, a well-known Chicago “fixer” who has raised at least $250,000 for Obama campaigns, happily ponied up more than advice. It was just the neighborly thing to do. Wouldn’t you?

However, to the Chicago Tribune, Obama claimed he did not know how Rezko found out about the property:

Obama disclosed Friday that someone else already had an option to buy the garden lot. But he said Rezko took over that option after Rezko learned Obama was bidding for the house. Obama said he knew next to nothing about those transactions and does not recall when he learned that Rezko was interested in buying the side lot- or even how Rezko learned it was for sale.

The conflicting reports don’t matter, do they? Nah, not unless credibility is an issue . . .

Yet somehow, it reminds one of the Obama Canadian NAFTA story, with BO talking out of both sides of his mouth. He doesn’t lie nearly as well as the Clintons do. What did Mr. and Mrs. Rezko expect to get out of the deal, other than a place to grow zucchini? Good question. Maybe he was just sowing seeds for a random harvest. But when the answers are in, they may lead to British tycoon Nahdmi Auchi:

Obama buys a house in a land deal with Tony Rezko’s wife, whose income at the time was $35k/year. In the days before the papers were signed, Rezko gets a loan from Auchi. Auchi and Rezko are pizza and real estate partners — you know, little ol’ harmless “Tony” Rezko, the small time Chicago operator.

Then mysteriously last month, Rezko goes to jail for breaking a bail agreement because he gets another $3.5 million loan from Auchi, the man who became the 279th richest man in the world partially by making arms deals with Saddam Hussein.

There’s more. Check out what Jack Kelly has to say about the links between Obama and Auchi. We aren’t the only ones asking questions. The Feds have a lively interest. In December 2006, the Chicago Sun-times reported:

“Federal authorities are investigating an Iraqi power plant deal involving Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a former top fund-raiser for Gov. Blagojevich charged with defrauding Illinois taxpayers.

“Investigators want to talk to Iraq’s jailed former electricity minister, Aiham Alsammarae, about how Rezko landed the potentially lucrative contract, a source familiar with the probe told the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Alsammarae, who holds dual U.S.-Iraqi citizenship and has a house in Oak Brook, helped Rezko get the deal, another source said.

“Rezko and others in the venture were to own the plant and sell electricity back to the Iraqis, but the Iraqi government still was to pay a substantial portion of construction costs, that source added.

“The contract, negotiated in 2004, no longer is in effect. It is unknown how much money, if any, Rezko made.

“Alsammarae, 55, attended the Illinois Institute of Technology with Rezko in the late 1970s and early 1980s and went on to own an engineering firm in Downers Grove.

“In 2003, Alsammarae returned to his native Iraq to lead efforts to help rebuild its war-torn power grid. By January 2005, Rezko’s Rezmar Corp. had secured its contract to build a 200- to 300-megawatt plant in the northern Iraqi city of Chamchamal.

“Since then, Alsammarae has been arrested and convicted of corruption by Iraq’s Commission on Public Integrity. He and his family have vehemently denied that he has done anything wrong and fear he’ll be killed if he remains in Iraqi custody, according to news reports.

“Rezko, 51, was indicted in October [2006] on fraud charges allegedly tied to his influence within the Blagojevich administration. Among other things, the feds are accusing Rezko of bilking Illinois taxpayers out of $250,000 through an alleged kickback scheme that involved a state pension fund. Blagojevich has not been accused of wrongdoing and has denied he knew anything about what Rezko allegedly was doing.

“The Iraq deal is of interest to authorities here because Rezko and Alsammarae know each other and each is facing corruption charges.”

No kidding. The story has moved along, and the Rezko trial is now in full swing. Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t know about that neighborly arrangement. The Jan. 10th ABC News story, referenced above, reports, “Rezko’s behind-the-scenes connection in the Obama house deal became public as Rezko revealed personal financial details as he sought to post bail.”

It makes for an interesting circle of friends. Do I hear “guilt by association”? No, but it may be guilt by favor-trading, and possibly more. Think kickbacks, for which Rezko is already standing trial. Lest anyone be confused, Obama is not naive. He is a Harvard Law graduate, and has been dealing with Chicago politicians ever since he left law school. Says John Kass this morning:

Obama asks us to believe he can swim in the sewers of Illinois politics without catching a cold. He tells us that Rezko helped him scope out his dream house, yet Obama never thought he’d get a call from Tony saying his back was itchy.

“No,” Obama said. “Because I had known him for a long time, and so I would have assumed I would have seen a pattern [of Rezko asking for favors] over the course of 15 years.”

“I’m too old to believe in fairy tales.”

Outside of hospital nurseries, there is no innocence in Chicago. Jury selection on the Rezko trial was set to begin March 3rd. The trial is expected to take three months. It will surely resonate in the Obama campaign, bringing other questions and connections into the spotlight and keeping media attention on Obama’s Syrian friend.